'Those things are not an excuse for the players. It's down to us as individuals to carry on doing the right things.

Breaking up is hard to do: Chelsea seemed to suffer when Ray Wilkins (right) left

'From winning games comfortably every week, we suddenly went to wondering where our next win was coming from. Every team has a dip but ours was too prolonged considering the quality of the players we have in our squad.

'As the manager says, we went to sleep for two months and now we've woken up and we're trying to make it another successful season.

'If that doesn't happen, we know we're going to get criticised because people have high expectations of Chelsea - and that's only right.

'We've been very lucky to have challenged right to the end of the season for the past six years.'"But we have to realise that everything won't always go our way so this game at Old Trafford is huge.

'The Champions League is a competition we've never won despite all our other successes.

'But this year it's even more important because we're not in our usual position of being out in front in the league.

'So now we have to perform at our best and take faith from the way we've won at Old Trafford before.

'If we do that, we're very capable of going through to the semi-finals.'

Pressure, what pressure? Carlo says he won't be sacked if Chelsea get KO'd Is Torres really up to the job. or does Ancelotti drop his ?50m striker?Three feelgood facts for Fergie. and three reasons to cheer for CarloAll the latest Chelsea news, features and opinion